It is interesting to note that Dr. Cheddi Jagan and the PPP were always the target of outside interference. On October 9, 1953, 133 days after the British Guiana election results, Britain launched a military coup code-named Operation WINSDOR, to oust Dr. Cheddi Jagan. Hundreds of British soldiers onboard the warship HMS Superb stormed Guiana’s capital, Georgetown, and secured key positions. They suspended the Guyana constitution and arrested the country’s democratically elected legislators, including the Jagans. The territory remained under direct British military rule for the next three years, during which the Jagans were held under house arrest, even during the birth of their two children. Eventually, Cheddi Jagan was released and became Premier of Guyana in 1961.
After Independence, the PNC was bankrolled by the CIA, and with their knowledge, allowed Forbes Burnham to siphon off large sums of money from the local flour mill to build the PNC into a well-organised, formidable force. Declassified documents also revealed that Burnham was allowed to rig General Elections with the knowledge of the US Government.
In 1992, Guyana had its first free and fair elections under the watchful eye of former US President Jimmy Carter. As President, Carter would have had access to all classified intelligence files on Guyana, and as a God-fearing man, may have said to himself, enough is enough!
Guyanese voters are no longer disenfranchised at the polls, and our economy has undergone a complete metamorphosis. Guyanese are much better off than they were under the vote-rigging PNC dictatorship, and the PNC/APNU supporters are benefitting equally with their PPP counterparts. But they are those among us that will sell out our country for a US visa, or to protect the ones they have.
Acting Foreign Affairs Minister, the Hon. Priya Manickchand, delivered an appropriate response from the Guyana Government to a meddling diplomat on the eve of his departure. This Ambassador was cautioned privately on several occasions by the Administration on his breach of diplomatic protocol and ethics, but chose instead to denigrate and insult our elected President and the General Secretary of the PPP.
In his speech on July 2, the Ambassador went even further, inciting an insurrection in this country by insinuating that the Opposition follow the American lead in 1776 when they picked up arms against King George to win their freedom. At the time, America was a colony of Great Britain. He declared, “We’ll be the wind behind your back, but you will have to do this yourself.” There was no denunciation of this call for insurrection by a diplomat who enjoyed the hospitality of this Government and the people of Guyana from any member of the Opposition. So much for patriotism!
Those dissenting voices who oppose the speech that was read by Minister Manickchand are the very ones that would benefit from the “regime change” Freddie Kissoon so callously writes about in his column. Like Hamilton Green, APNU’s Africo Selman, Christopher Ram, Mark Benschop, Adam Harris, Khemraj Ramjattan, Leader of the Opposition, David Granger, Mark Crawford and Charrandass Persaud, Kissoon seems comfortable to allow the US Government to once again undermine our democracy, and deny the right of every Guyanese to choose his own destiny.
It is sad that Ralph Ramkarran finds himself in this group rather than in the sensible, knowledgable writings of Professor Duke Pollard and Henry Jeffrey.
But I thank God for the brave few who publicly defended the Administration’s position which stated firmly that Ambassador Hardt was in breach of the Vienna Convention. In defence of our constitution, Professor Justice Duke Pollard, from the Department of Law, University of Guyana, wrote, “What is determinative is the customary rule of international law which precludes a diplomatic envoy from interfering in the domestic affairs of the receiving state, a primordial obligation encapsulated in Article 41.1 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (1963) and also reflected in Article 2(7) of the United Nations Charter.
It seems like the Administration and most specifically, the Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, have just been vindicated.
HARRY GILL
